More memories

Seems like a good therapy for the Gibbs girls is BLOGGING! Lora and Em wrote great tributes to grandma and I wanted to share.
Lora's-
http://loralantzy.blogspot.com/2009/02/in-memory.html
Em's-
http://thegivensfamilyintn.blogspot.com/2009/02/in-loving-memory-of-betty-briner.html

I would also like to thank Em for showing everyone how hot I used to be. Those hairstyles and clothes were very popular back then- might I add!

I'm so glad we can laugh and smile at all the fun memories we had in Traverse!

Left with so many Memories

I got a call from mom tonight (Wednesday), letting me know grandma passed away.
Grandma Briner is finally at peace and can be her old self again (that means skiing and golfing like a champ). With the peace of her passing comes sadness that the "Traverse City" chapter of our lives is closed.
The house they built holds so many memories of all the fun times our families shared. Every time we went to Traverse we laughed too much, ate too much, took too many pictures, were too loud and always managed to have a great time!
The memories we are left with are grandma's legacy and I'm so thankful for each of them.

These are for all the Briners and Gibbs:
-grandma teaching me to drive stick in the old civic
-elephant rock
-Freezing Frog Club (I'm still the prez)
-Picking Cherries
-Bob's boat adventures
-Grandma teaching us how to ski
-Lady and Amber
-white fish dip
-being too loud and silly at the Country Club
-The Bowery
-learning to sail
-Skinny dipping
-the brown pontoon breaking down every year
-splinters and bees on the deck
-LITTLE HOUSE!!
-ping pong
-learning how to build a fire
-playing in grandpa's boats
-dad hunting for all the expired food
-never ending card game and bowls of ice cream
-Little house morning breath
-sledding down the front hill
-grandma insisting we have dinner on the picnic table in the front yard
-bonfires on the beach and long jump contests
-having the extra deck built in the woods instead of on the beach :)
-every amazing sunset we watched on the front porch
and the list could go on for days...

Grandma afforded our family so much over the years and I am thankful for every opportunity and memory she gave us. We all love you and will keep the memories going for years to come!

Oliver "doesn't have a middle name yet" Morrow

That's right...Mel Mel is a mom!!!
Oliver was born on Tuesday, February 17th at 5:04am. Oliver was breech so they did an emergency c-section. I got all the details about the surgery from Matt...sounded pretty cool!
He weighed in at 8lbs 2oz and 21 inches long.
During my visit today, he was eating and sleeping like a champ, pooping well and he even decided to pee on me :)
Congrats Mel and Matt...you both are going to be great parents!

Mel Mel being a trooper

Typical picture with Matt

Walking the halls with Mel (and doing squats!)

Oliver loves his mama

Sweet daddy giving Oliver kisses

Auntie Brooke

Valentine's Weekend

Without a doubt, this was a weekend filled with so much love and laughter. Since I love Hallmark, its only right that I love Valentines Day too. Actually, I'm not a huge fan of Vday but I think Mike might have changed my mind this year.
Friday started with a sweet card on my car, then beautiful roses delivered to the office, a great dinner, a nice new watch (guess I can't wear my target sports watch now) and a movie to top off the night. I don't remember the last time I had a nice watch. I always wear my sports watch (even at the office) and I guess it was time to grow up!

Saturday was WINERY DAY! We had 4 wineries on the schedule but only made it to 3 of them. We started with lunch at Ketchie Creek Bakery then headed to Raylen. After a 16 flight tasting, it was determined that Mike needed to drive the rest of the day. We all jumped back into the car and headed to Rag Apple Lassie Winery. This was my FAVORITE winery. We then headed to McRitchie Winery. This one was awesome too but we didn't get to spend as much time.


It was getting late, so we headed back to Charlotte. Mike and I did a quick change and then headed to have dinner with his best friend. We ended up at a new restaurant and decided this would be our first and last visit. We had a great time with Phil and Deania and were able to laugh off the "not so good" dinner experience.

Sunday was busy with church, cleaning, shopping and Sunday Night Dinner Club. The Flemings and Bruce's came over to Kelly and Robby's for dinner. The night was filled with great food, drinking, Terry having an allergic reaction to Fats, giving Robby a hard time, the girls (minus me) taking shots, an intense UNC game, me and Kelly being obnoxious, Kel telling Mike to get control of me and a TON of good laughs. Praise God for bank holidays...It was a full weekend so I was very excited to not have to work on Monday morning.

I really had a great weekend and am VERY blessed to have all these amazing people in my life. More fun to come!

Tour de Plaza Midwood

Operation "get in shape for Kelly's wedding" continues...

On tonight's agenda- Tour de Plaza Midwood
Kelly's green cruiser (complete with a flower and bell) and my road (I have no idea how it works) bike set out for an evening ride. We looked hot in our helmets, had a great work out, lots of honks and laughs and finally made it home in one piece. Praise the Lord!

The tour continues this week...watch out b/c we might end up in your neighborhood!!!!

Chin Up

Here is a quick review of the last week.
-got over vertigo
-work started to get crazy
-my AMAZING boss, Mindy, (friend/mentor/leader) got "let go" along with 60% of all the execs in supply chain at BOA
-this led an emotional breakdown
-Confirmation that I don't do well with change, have a hard time with emotions, and I am NOT in control
-The weekend made up for the crappy week: bridesmaid dress shopping (more to come on that hilarious story), Saturday night Praise and worship at church for our 3rd anniversary, and a FABULOUS Sunday with church (150 new volunteers signed up and I got to see Mindy), the beautiful weather, bf, grilling out and amazing friends.
-still working on having more grace :)

It's a new week-Chin up and I'm ready to face it!

1 Chronicles 29:11-13

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all

Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.

Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.

Charleston

I have been meaning to write this post but a little thing called vertigo got in the way. My sweet boyfriend got me Rascal Flatts tickets as one of my birthday presents. On top of that, the concert was in Charleston...so we got to have a fun weekend getaway!
On our way out of town, stopped to get cheap gas and a fountain coke zero so I knew this was going to be a good trip! We made it to Charleston (thanks to my new GPS from Mike), checked into the hotel and then of course did some shopping.
Mike picked a great place for dinner...Old Village Post House. AMAZING!!!


After dinner, we headed to the concert. One of our favorite past times is "people watching" and man was this the perfect place. Jessica Simpson was the opening act and I decided singing just wasn't her thing. She just didn't do a very good job and was very uncomfortable on stage..maybe I'm being too hard on her but oh well.
But the Rascal Flatts made up for her poor performance. They did an awesome job and its the best one of their concerts I have seen.
Keeping with my true grandma fashion, we left the concert and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep :)

Sunday, we went to Seacoast Church and it was such a fun experience. I have been wanting to attend a service there for a while now but haven't been able to. The Pastor didn't let us down and had a great sermon on Heaven. (the church was huge and amazing might I add)
My relatives live right down the street from the church, so we met them at their house then headed to downtown Charleston for brunch.
Mike got to meet Andy, Kara and 2 of their 3 kids (Meredith and Colin). Jay is a freshman at Wake so he couldn't join us. We had a fabulous brunch/lunch complete with mimosas and bloody marys!
After we said our goodbye's, Mike and I got on the road and headed back to Charlotte.
It really was the perfect birthday present!

Druggie

It's been a long week but I can finally see the light at the end. I am feeling much better and I'm even going to try and make it into the office tomorrow.
It was so hard to just sit at home all last week (even though I felt like I was dying). I just miss being at work, being busy, getting coffee with my teammates and being part of the world!

I have not gotten a chance to call or email everyone back yet (I'm sorry)...I'm working on it. But THANK YOU SO MUCH! I really appreciate all the thoughts and prayers.

Off to take my 2nd round of daily meds and let the Valium put me to sleep!